Sickness levels at Birmingham City Council have risen consistently since the summer, raising fears that a crackdown on absenteeism has run out of steam.

Annual figures published in August last year showed that staff were off ill for an average 7.7 days a year each – the lowest figure ever recorded.

But by December, the absence rate had shot up to an average 11 days for each of the council’s 50,000 employees.

The figure is twice as high as the average for private industry, according to the CBI.

During the nine months between April and December 2010, more than half of council staff reported sick on at least one occasion.

Ten per cent of employees were on long term sickness during the same period.

The rising trend prompted opposition Labour human resources spokesman Steve Bedser to question the effectiveness of a £285 million computer system which is supposed to make it easier for managers to track persistent absentees and take action to reduce sickness levels.

Coun Bedser (Lab Kings Norton) said: “The council spent a lot of money on an IT programme called People Solutions, which we were told would make it easier for managers to track patterns of sickness and take appropriate action.

“It was sold as an investment to enable managers to properly manage sickness absence.

“Now the statistics show that this system is not having the positive impact that was expected.”

He added: “We have to recognise that there was some modest progress earlier in the year, but the sad fact is that since September sickness rates have been consistently rising and are now well above the target that the city has set.

“These figures track performance before the worst of the winter weather. Goodness only knows what we will see when the January and February figures are published.

“In the current climate of redundancy and uncertainty over spending cuts, there is no reason to believe absenteeism will get any better and every reason to believe it will get worse.”

Cabinet human resources member, Alan Rudge, said he had expected sickness levels to rise during the winter months, when more people are ill.

Coun Rudge (Con Sutton Vesey) insisted that efforts to reduce absenteeism were working, helped by the new IT system.

He believed the increase in December 2010 could have been a blip, caused by people ringing in sick because of heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures.

In December 2009, the average number of days off sick hit 11.8 per person. A year earlier, the figure was 12.6.

In 2004, the last year that Labour ran the council, sickness rates were approaching 20 days per person.

Coun Rudge added: “Basically, we are heading in the right direction. I am not complacent, but I am happy with the pattern although obviously we would like it to be lower.”